Panic And Scare Grips Israel

The Haaretz Internet site published a survey on Thursday showing that half of Israelis are concerned for the survival of the country in the event of a confrontation with Iran.

 The public, it appears, isn’t worried any more about the casualty toll that the rockets could produce, or the destruction of our economy. These are small potatoes for the public. According to the poll, we have gone one stage further.

Now the public fears for the actual existence of Israel. It’s possible, according to public opinion, that the State of Israel could cease to exist following this much-hyped war with Iran. In short, the second Holocaust is here. Put out your hand and touch it. Another two or three historic speeches from the prime minister and we are there.

Century Fox Report: Iran warns that it will demolish Israel.

This is the primary achievement of Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy. Panic as diplomacy. Some 64 years of blood, sweat and tears, unprecedented achievements of a state established on the ashes of the Holocaust, which became a regional superpower with huge strength, have gone up in the smoke of rhetoric.

Before his address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, he could pat himself on the back. The Israeli public has demonstrated that if you repeat something enough times, as exaggerated as it is, it will finally be absorbed. Even though the reality, by the way, is nothing close to the situation he describes.

A war with Iran will not pose any danger to the existence of Israel. Iran, at least for now, does not have the ability to cause Israel significant strategic harm. Its missiles, whose that can penetrate the various defense mechanisms that Israel has developed (which, obviously, no other country has) would cause only limited damage.

More News: Iran-"Israeli strike may lead to World War III"
Hezbollah’s arsenal would inflict much more damage, but this too would not result in anything we haven’t encountered before. The 1948-49 War of Liberation was much more dangerous, the Six Day War was much more scary, the surprises of Yom Kippur were much more disastrous, and the second intifada was not a pleasant afternoon stroll either.

Israel knows how to deal with problems, better than any other country in the world. The damage that we can cause to the other party is so much more. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah knows that he he fires his ammunition at us, Lebanon will be destroyed. They know this in Gaza, too.

And the expected damage in Iran in the case of a confrontation with Israel would be much heavier than the damage caused here.

And yet, half of Israeli citizens, almost 4 million women and men, fear that Israel could stop existing if a war breaks out with Iran. Really.

What is so fateful here? Relations with America. They are really crucial to our future. Without the United States to lean on, without the F-15s and F16s and the jets that go under the radar, the Apache helicopters and the spare parts and the bombs and the missiles from the huge US arsenal that are already here and represent an insurance policy for the future, without the intelligence and the economic deterrent, without the technological and moral support, and without the knowledge of the whole world that America stands behind Israel in every scenario and in any weather, that we and they are one, we really are in existential danger.

It is difficult to imagine Israel in the past few decades without America. It is more important, even, than the Iranian nuclear program. Think about it. It is important in the event that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons (because this presumably will happen only thanks to America), and it is so much more important if Iran does, ultimately, become a nuclear power (in which case, America’s back will turn into a real rock of our existence).

And it is this, if you haven’t noticed, that Netanyahu is harming. Never has an Israeli prime minister been so unwanted a personality among the US administration as Netanyahu is today.

We can only hope that we will be able to find a way to live with this.

EXPLORE:  World News       Iran       Israel      Panetta Report On Iran       World War III       Iran President Interview       

Read More

Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

Follow @centuryfoxpost

Face To face With The Iranian President 'Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during an exclusive interview with Associated Press editorial staff during his visit to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly 

NEW YORK — After an hour of fielding questions about Syria, sanctions and nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had enough. Now, he said, it was his turn to choose the topic — his "new order" which will inevitably replace the current era of what he called U.S. bullying.

Continuing his hectic pace of media appearances and diplomatic meetings, Ahmadinejad presented an air of boredom when it came to the hot topic on everyone's mind — Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of impending war. Whether it was feigned or sincere, he said he would much rather be talking about his vision of what the next world order might be.

Conveniently, it would be an order in which the U.S. and the traditional powers play a smaller role and every country has equal standing (though the state of Israel, he often predicts, will soon become a historical footnote).

"God willing, a new order will come and will do away with ... everything that distances us," Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday, speaking through a translator. "All of the animosity, all of the lack of sincerity will come to an end. It will institute fairness and justice."

He said the world was losing patience with the current state of affairs.

Century Fox News: UN concerned by Iran's Nuclear programme
"Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying," he said. "I do believe the system of empires has reached the end of the road. The world can no longer see an emperor commanding it."

The interview was held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly — Ahmadinejad's last as president of Iran. He was to address the assembly Wednesday morning.

He also discussed solutions for the Syrian civil war, dismissed the question of Iran's nuclear ambition and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country is better off than it was when he took office in 2005.

Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned Iran that time is running out to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. In a speech to the General Assembly, Obama said the United States could not tolerate an Iran with atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad would not respond directly to the president's remarks, saying he did not want to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

But he argued that the international outcry over Iran's nuclear enrichment program was just an excuse by the West to dominate his country. He claimed that the United States has never accepted Iran's choice of government after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Everyone is aware the nuclear issue is the imposition of the will of the United States," he said. "I see the nuclear issue as a non-issue. It has become a form of one-upmanship."

Ahmadinejad said he favored more dialogue, even though negotiations with world powers remain stalled after three rounds of high-level meetings since April.

He said some world leaders have suggested to him that Iran would be better off holding nuclear talks only with the United States.

"Of course I am not dismissing such talks," he said, asked if he were open to discussions with the winner of the American presidential election.

Israeli leaders, however, are still openly contemplating military action again Iranian nuclear facilities, dismissing diplomacy as a dead end. Israel and many in the West suspect that Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, and cite its failure to cooperate fully with nuclear inspectors. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Ahmadinejad also proposed forming a new group of 10 or 11 countries to work to end the 18-month Syrian civil war. Representatives of nations in the Middle East and elsewhere would meet in New York "very soon," he said.

Critics have accused Tehran of giving support to Syrian President Bashar Assad in carrying out massacres and other human rights violations in an attempt to crush the uprising against his rule. Activists say nearly 30,000 people have died.

Ahmadinejad said the so-called contact group hopes to get the Syrian government and opposition to sit across from each other.

"I will do everything in my power to create stability, peace and understanding in Syria," Ahmadinejad said.

Earlier this month, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi announced the formation of a four-member contact group with Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia so far has not participated.

Ahmadinejad denied Iranian involvement in plotting attacks on Israelis abroad, despite arrests and accusations by police in various countries. He also vehemently disputed the U.S. claim that Iranian agents played a role in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States last year.

Century Fox Report: Israeli strike could trigger World war III
Ahmadinejad will leave office next June after serving two four-year terms. He threw out numbers and statistics during the interview to show that Iran's economy and the lives of average Iranians have improved under his watch. Since his 2005 election, he claimed, Iran went from being the world's 22nd-largest economy to the 17th-largest; non-petroleum related exports increased sevenfold; and the basic production of goods has doubled. Median income increased by $4,000, he said.

It was not possible to immediately verify his figures.

"Today's conditions in Iran are completely different to where they were seven years ago in the economy, in technical achievement, in scientific know-how," Ahmadinejad said. "All of these achievements, though, have been reached under conditions in which we were brought under heavy sanctions."

Iran has called for the U.S. and its European allies to ease the sanctions that have hit its critical oil exports and left it blackballed from key international banking networks.

Ahmadinejad said he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a private investigator and former FBI agent who vanished in Iran five years ago. He said he directed Iranian intelligence services two years ago to work with their counterparts in the U.S. to locate him.

"And if any help there is that I can bring to bear, I would be happy to do so," he said.

He also claimed never to have heard of Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine who is imprisoned on espionage charges in Iran. Hekmati was arrested while visiting his grandmothers in Iran in August 2011, and his family has been using Ahmadinejad's visit to New York to plead for his release.

In spite of Ahmadinejad's assertions on the importance of dialogue and respect for others, he has presented a hard line in many areas in this week's media appearances.

He refuses to speak of the state of Israel by name and instead refers only to the "Zionists." And when asked on Monday about author Salman Rushdie, he made no attempt to distance himself from recent renewed threats on the author's life emanating from an Iranian semi-official religious foundation.

"If he is in the U.S.," said the president of Iran, "you should not broadcast it for his own safety."



EXPLORE:  World News     UN    Assad     Iran     Iraq     War       Syrian Sad Stories    Afghanistan    Obama And Israel   Israel     Pope Benedict  XVI        Panetta Report On Iran       World War III

Read More

Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

Follow @centuryfoxpost

Iran: "Israeli Strike Could Trigger World War III"

Revolutionary Guards commander says war would be "historic opportunity" to destroy Israel and "reclaim Palestine."

Senior Iranian military commanders repeated threats made over the past few weeks that Tehran will destroy Israel if it launches an attack on Iran either with or without the US.

Brig.-Gen. Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s aerospace division, told state-owned Al-Alam TV that an Israeli strike on Iran could “trigger World War III.”

Iran would target US bases in the region should Israel attack, Hajizadeh added.“It is impossible to imagine an independent war between Iran and the US or the Zionist regime [Israel],” he said, adding that other countries in the region would likely side with Iran or Israel in case of war.

Referring to a deadly attack by Taliban gunmen against a US Marine base in southern Afghanistan earlier this month, in which five aircraft were destroyed, Hajizadeh warned that an attack by Israel on Iran could extend war to the region.

“One should not imagine that the countries in the region would declare neutrality if a war breaks out,” he said according to a report by Iran’s Press TV.

Also on Sunday, Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Guard Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami said Iran is no longer concerned about threats from Israel.

“We have crossed the line of worrying about threats from the Zionist Regime [Israel],” Salami said according to Sepah News, the Revolutionary Guard’s official news site. He added that in its wars over the last decade Israel has encountered harsh retaliation from the Islamic Republic’s “regional branches” and is no longer considered a threat to Iran.

“If the Zionists really do strike Iran, it would provide a historic opportunity for the Islamic Revolution to wipe [Israel] off the face of the earth,” he said adding that Iran would then “reclaim the lands occupied by Israel for the Palestinians.” Salami added that an infantry battalion would be able to “break Israel’s back” within a day.

“The Regime [Israel] is only 24 kilometers wide in parts,” he explained.

Salami said that Iran was known as a great power and was capable of fighting on many fronts.

“We do not intend to start a war, but if someone starts a war against us, we will respond offensively and strike everywhere and will not stop,” he added, noting that the Revolutionary Guard’s strategies and tactics are offensive, not defensive, in nature.

“Our enemy will begin the war, but we will be the ones to end it,” he added.

Century Fox report: Iran Warns that it will demolish Israel

Salami said that Iran had gained knowledge in weapons manufacturing, including modern missile technology.

The Islamic Republic has missiles capable of destroying enemy bases in the region, he added.

Referring to Iran’s recent announcements of new military developments, Salami noted that Iran had unveiled its Ra’ad (“Thunder”) air defense system during its annual military parade on Friday.

The Ra’ad system is equipped with domestically made Taer (“Bird”) missiles, which have a range of 50 kilometers and can hit targets at 22,000 meters, according to the Iranian state media.

EXPLORE:  World News     UN    Iran     Iraq     War       Afghanistan    Obama And Israel    Israel     Colombia       Panetta Report On Iran

Read More

Edited By Cen Fox Post Team

Follow @centuryfoxpost